


The many fates of Romanadvoratrelundar

by Cupcake037



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Gallifrey (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Multi, Time War (Doctor Who)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:01:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 4,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25629373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cupcake037/pseuds/Cupcake037
Summary: A few possible outcomes post Time War 3, in the order of how much I’d like them happening. (Update: chapter 5/6 is just what I’ve come up with from the description of tw4)Post TW4 update: after chapter 6 is the possible outcomes of the end of Time War 4, ‘Homecoming’ and contains spoilers for that story.
Relationships: Irving Braxiatel/Romana II, Leela/Narvin/Romana II, Leela/Romana II, Narvin/Romana II, Romana/Livia
Kudos: 13





	1. Rescue

Romana was ready to give up her lives -all of her lives, for her friends. She had stayed behind on Unity so they could be safe. She was surrounded by daleks and expecting the worst.

This completely failed when something happened she had experienced once before, a highly focused dematerialization. And she could guess who had done it.

“Braxiatel?!”

“Yes, hello Romana.”

“What in the universe are you doing here?!”

“Saving your life, again.”

“I was trying to stop the daleks from finding Leela and Narvin!”

“Which you did in a very foolish way.”

“What are you doing back here, I thought you’d abandoned us.”

“I was just passing through, thought I’d save your life on the way.”

“Well I guess now that we’re both here, we better go find Leela and Narvin, prove to them we’re still here.”

With Braxiatel still around, and Romana safely in his tardis, they set off to find Leela and Narvin.


	2. Return

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Romana was ready to give up her lives -all of her lives, for her friends. She had stayed behind on Unity so they could be safe. She was surrounded by daleks and expecting the worst.
> 
> This completely failed when something happened she had experienced once before, a highly focused dematerialization. And she could guess who had done it.

“Brax!- Narvin?” Romana was shocked to find that it was the battered old tardis that had just left her she had suddenly appeared in, and not Braxiatel’s.

“Romana! Oh thank goodness! I thought I was too late.” 

“Narvin? How did you do that? Especially on a tardis this run down.”

“Braxiatel taught me.”

“Of course he did. But why did you come back for me, I thought our plan was to leave me on Unity to keep the daleks off your trail?”

“I can’t go on without you, I thought I had lost you. When I remembered the trick Braxiatel taught me, and knew it was my only chance of getting you back.” Narvin looked like he was about to burst into tears.

Romana noticed Leela coming out of the corridor, and decided she didn’t want Leela to know she was still herself just yet and went back to pretending she wasn’t. She winked at Narvin. “How did I get here?! What is this place?!”

“Romana?!” Leela had noticed her.

“Don’t call me that!”

“I know you are trying to trick me Romana, I heard you talking to Narvin!” She knew Leela wouldn’t be fooled forever.

“You’re right Leela, I’m still me.”

It took Leela a while to accept that Romana had lied to her but the continued off into the time war... trying to stay safe


	3. Revenant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Romana is killed but the daleks, but the time lords want information about the dalek occupation of unity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this is inconsistent, and sorry for taking so long, I am overwhelmed with university and did not have time to write.

The blast of the Dalek’s gun came straight towards Romana, it was too quick for her to move, but why would she? If this was her fate, then so be it, sacrificing herself to save her friends, Narvin, Leela, and Rayo, the boy that Leela had cared for while she was on Unity, along with his mother Veega, who had passed from flu before they could do anything to help her. At least she knew they were safe, or as safe as they could be in a war such as this, for now at least. The bolt struck between her hearts and she dropped to the ground.

The Daleks left the lifeless body of Romana alone to look for her associates, completely unaware that the Time Lords had already detected them.

—

Mantus was in his office trying to find more resistance through his many surveillance devices throughout the capital when he received a call from one of his ‘underlings’ as he liked to call them. “Yes?”   
“Director Mantus, we’ve traced the source of the Daleks’ energy to a planet called Unity.”  
“Very good, but that’s not all you wanted to talk to me about, is it?”  
“We have found the body of former Coordinator Romana on the same planet.”  
“What a wonderful surprise, bring her to me.”  
“You misunderstand, Sir, Lady Romana has been killed by the Daleks.”  
“I understood you perfectly, Commander, but it doesn’t matter, because I have a way of fixing that.”

—

Prime Minister Livia was going through reports of Dalek activity when she came across something interesting:

We have discovered Dalek occupation on the fringes of a dusty backwater world, a planet called Unity, hiding underground exploiting the mining operations of the local human population. Nearby on the same planet, near the ruins of a farmhouse, the detonation site of several time grenades, we have found the body of renegade, former Coordinator of the Celestial Intervention Agency, and former President of Gallifrey, Lady Romanadvoratrelundar. Her body is being sent back to Gallifrey by the orders of Director Mantus and to be run through Project Revenant.

“Romana?” Livia gasped, no one had seen Romana since she had partnered with her to assassinate Rassilon, the Lord President Eternal. Their plan had ultimately failed and had resulted in the former Coordinator and her Deputy Coordinator, Narvin being arrested and following in the footsteps of Romana´s friend The Doctor, by stealing a TARDIS and running away, killing one of the commanders in the Interior Defense Unit in the process, or at least that’s what Mantus had said. Livia knew Romana, through the end of Romana’s presidency and the duration of her own, Livia and Romana had been far from friends, but once the time war started and they had resurrected Rassilon, Livia started to realize Romana’s methods were better than theirs. But Livia was probably the closest Romana had to a friend still on Gallifrey, and she wasn’t going to let Romana face the wrath of Mantus alone directly after going through a supposedly agonizing process.  
She was going to go down to the resurrection engine on the bottom level of the capitol, near the cells and make sure Mantus lets her see Romana.

—

When the Expeditionary forces tasked with searching Unity had returned with the body of Lady Romana on board Mantus was waiting for them in the resurrection alcove. To his surprise Lady Livia entered with them. He sighed, “Yes, what is it, Prime Minister?”  
“I’d heard Lady Romana had come home, I wanted to see for myself.”  
“You do realize she was exterminated by the Dalek occupation on Unity?”  
“You’re running her through revenant though, aren’t you? I came to welcome her back.  
“Very well, I should let you oversee her recovery then, shouldn’t I?”  
Mantus left them alone as his technician ran Romana through the resurrection process, but he was waiting outside and would be able to hear their conversation.

—

Romana woke up on a small medidais somewhere in the citadel, but was it a trick? She couldn’t tell, she thought she’d been exterminated. She looked down at her body, it was the same one she had before, but it ached. Was this what the afterlife was like? She hadn’t really believed in all that, when you die your mind gets uploaded to the matrix- that was it, she was it. The time lords had found her and run her through project revenant, but hadn’t Narvin destroyed it? Romana looked up and was greeted by a familiar face.  
“Livia?”  
“Hello Romana, it’s nice to see you again.”  
“What are you doing here? Actually, what am I doing here I thought we got rid of project revenant?”  
“Mantus kept a smaller resurrection engine inside the capitol, he’s coming in to talk to you, I just wanted to see you again and make sure you were alright.”  
Livia walked away and Romana was now presented with the unfriendly face of Mantus, looking just as stern as always.  
“Lady Romana, I know you have information on the dalek occupation of Unity and I have brought you back so you can tell us what you know.”  
“I thought you never wanted to see me again.”  
“That was before you found the daleks’ fuel source, now tell us what you know!”  
“I’m surprised you haven’t just wiped unity out of the sky.”  
Romana told them about the dalek occupation of unity and tried to convince them not to destroy it, but to no avail. At least Narvin and Leela we’re out there somewhere. She had saved them at least.


	4. Regeneration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Surrounded by Daleks, Romana discovers the new reality of Time War regeneration.

It turned out that daleks were actually really bad shots and the blast had only grazed Romana, but Dalek guns being Dalek guns were still extremely powerful, and the blast had caused her to regenerate.  
Romana knew that Rassilon added something new to regenerations, but this was not what she expected. Her regeneration feels more powerful, explosive, in a way, a big difference from her first regeneration.  
Back then, she had calmly decided to regenerate to get Pandora out of her mind and chose to copy the body of Princess Astra, but now that incarnation had to go, and she knew what she needed to make her next, someone who would get things done, and fight to keep her friends safe. Her future incarnation that she had met as a matrix projection, that had to be her next.  
As she decided on her next body her regeneration energy grew even more powerful, and she realized what Rassilon had done, he had weaponized regeneration, and with the squad of Daleks surrounding her, she knew what she had to do, she redirected the energies to take out the fleet. She spent her first adventure in that body being scared of Daleks, and her last adventure taking them out.  
Romana stood there for a second, renewed, reborn, and looked at the remains of the Daleks, she still wasn’t safe. On a world occupied by Daleks, leaving her friends behind to stop their trail, Romana knew what she needed to do, find her way back to Gallifrey.


	5. Redemption (pt 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new chapter to this story I hadn’t expected, a new fate for Romana, based off of what we know so far about the Gallifrey Time War 4 episode beyond, my take on what might happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My first ever fic on AO3 was written close to the release of Gallifrey time war two, which overwrote it, but since canon is nonexistent in Doctor who, I think it’s time to do that again. In the month before gallifrey time war four is released I am releasing another possible fate for Romana, one that I thought of only because of the details already known about the third story in the box set, Beyond, as well as, of course, my own take on some things.

Romana woke up in a strange place, where the light poking through her eyelids seemed to be both bright and dark at the same time. She opened her eyes and looked at what she was wearing, it resembled one of the house dresses she remembered her first incarnation liked wearing, one she had left on the doctors tardis, but from the golden strands of hair falling into her face that she was still in her second. Of course she could be in a third incarnation that just so happened to be a lot like her previous one, but she felt exactly the same, just cleaner. She looked back down at her dress and it had now somehow turned a shade of red so dark it almost looked brown.  
Romana ignored the mysterious changing color of her dress when she spotted a table in the distance, and sitting there was the person she was least expecting to see.  
“Romana!!"called Brax.  
This had better be good.  
Romana was still confused as to how Braxiatel had brought tea and wine to a mysterious underrealm, but as it was Brax she could almost believe it.  
“Romana! Please come sit with me and have some tea.”  
“Could you at least give me a clue as to where the hell we are and why you are having a tea party, Braxiatel?”  
“You did just say something that can probably describe this place quite well.”  
“What? ...oh ...oh no. You can’t possibly be serious, this place can’t actually be hell, it’s too quiet.”  
“Well not exactly, it’s more of a reality replaying all the worst moments of the time war, and I’ve managed to seal us in a little bubble away from that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for this being so short, I had this idea from reading the preview of TW4 on vortex and didn’t want to end up putting it off so long that TW4 had come out before this had.


	6. Redemption (part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Exterminated by Daleks, Romana finds herself in the beyond with Braxiatel, who is taking her to find something she never thought she’d see again. Is this the ‘key’ to ending the time war?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, sorry I was not able to finish this before TW4 came out. I assure you that the events of the actual story are not going to effect the outcome of this chapter of the fanfic. I am still writing what my first thoughts on what ‘Beyond’ would be like, not swayed at all by what it actually was.

Romana still wasn’t convinced on where they were. “What is this place really, Brax?”  
“We are in the beyond. Your fate in the Time war brought you here.”  
“If I’m here because I’ve been exterminated, how are you here? You aren’t dead too, are you. Brax?”  
“My timeline is complicated.”  
“I can already see that, you’re more confusing than your-“  
“Can we just get on with our quest?”  
“Not until you tell me what we’re looking for.”  
“Alright, alright. You Romana, are now starting your second quest for the key to time.”  
Romana laughed at that, Brax couldn’t possibly be serious. “That’s impossible, the second time the Doctor went in search of the key, it was destroyed. I was there. That was another reason for my regeneration. The sixth segment’s essence had transferred to me, but Astra became the sixth segment again to save me. She sacrificed herself for me, because the key was then destroyed.”  
“Yes, but is anything really gone?”  
“You think the key to time is in this beyond place.”  
“Yes, and it might be just what we need to end the Time War.”  
Braxiatel led Romana through the horrendous madness that was in the beyond, it was easier than they thought it would be, the people in the time loops didn’t even seem to notice them, but they had to avoid being caught up in one. Eventually, they were finally upon it.  
“Do you think that’s the key, Romana?”  
“It looks exactly how I remember it, but why is it not in disguised segments? It’s whole.”  
“What state was it in when it was destroyed?”  
“It was like this, put together but the segments deteriorating.”  
“So it’s exactly the same as it was when it was destroyed.”  
“The segments are still deteriorating though, it can’t be used in a state like this. Even using chronodine as a replacement for the sixth segments caused this deteriorating in the first place, with all of them damaged and disintegrating it would cause even more damage.”  
“So there’s no way we can use it.”  
“No, there isn’t.”  
Suddenly Romana started fading.  
“What’s happening to me?”  
“You’re leaving the beyond, your mind is being dragged back into the real universe.”  
“The Time Lords must have found my body back on Unity. Well then, I’m going ‘home’.”  
“Goodbye, Romana. And good luck.”  
“Goodbye Brax, it was nice to see you again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha a sneaky key to time. I had no idea what Romana would be searching for in ‘beyond’ so I just dropped this in, as I expected the actual story would not be like this. Also I might have gotten a bit lazy towards the end of this but I just really wanted to get this out now that TW4 is also out.


	7. Reaching Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Time War 4 I am once again thinking about how Romana will escape her situation. This one is the first one I thought of, so the Time War 4 outcomes aren’t going to be in order of what I want to happen like the Time War 3 ones were.  
> This chapter also has Timeless Children and Revolution of the Daleks spoilers so don’t read it unless you have listened to TW4 and are caught up with the main show.

While stuck in prison, the Doctor thought a lot about a friend of theirs who had been stuck in an even worse prison for twenty years. They mostly thought about their fam, but if there was anyone they thought about nearly as much as Yasmin, Graham, and Ryan, it was Romanadvoratrelundar. They started thinking about her even more when the first thing they encountered after escaping from prison was Daleks, the exact same creatures who had imprisoned their friend for twenty years. After a while of thinking about Romana, The Doctor remembered something they had noticed hiding in the background of the Matrix projections, and thinking about it now made them realize who it was, it was Romana.

The Doctor had thought Romana dead in the Time War, or if she had made it through the pocket universe, converted into a cybermaster by The Master, but as The Master hadn’t bragged to The Doctor about it at all, she had to still be out there. The Doctor remembered a transmission they had received at the end of the Time War. “I am Romanadvoratrelundar, I speak to you from the final days of Gallifrey, I am the past you have forgotten, you are the future I will not live to see. One child of Gallifrey is destined to survive beyond the Time War, help them, help The Doctor.”  
Romana must have been in the Matrix to send that message, so she could have been lurking in the background of that projection. She knew about the Timeless Child. Hopefully when they destroyed the Cyberium, they hadn’t destroyed the Matrix.

“Yaz! I know where I want to go today!”

“Is it somewhere fun and not dangerous?”

“We’re going back to Gallifrey!”

“Why are we going back there? I thought you and The Master destroyed it?”

“I need to get something I left behind.”

Romana had been stuck in a pocket universe, as archivist and curator of Gallifrey’s past for so long that she had figured out a way to escape into the matrix, but there was no way to get out, back into her own universe, or even just onto Gallifrey. She had been stuck in a universe other than her own before, but even then, in E-Space, she knew she could eventually find a way out. But here, in this pocket universe, she had almost become Gallifrey’s past herself. There was no possible way for her to get out of this pocket universe, not without help from the outside world.

Having access to the Matrix at least gave her hope. Rassilon had blocked her access from contacting The Doctor’s TARDIS, but that didn’t stop her from trying to contact The Doctor through the Matrix when they were on Gallifrey. After a few tries, with Gallifrey destroyed again, and most of the other Time Lords being converted into cybermen, there was no hope of The Doctor coming back, and there was no hope of rescue. Or so she thought.

After a few days archiving information about Gallifrey’s destruction, Romana could hear something outside, in the ruins of the Citadel, The wheezing and groaning of a TARDIS materializing. She looked out into the ruins and saw a TARDIS that looked exactly how she expected, A blue police box from 20th century Earth. A short blonde woman stepped out, and while she reminded Romana of her current incarnation when she first started off, from the horrendous fashion choices and the child-like excitement, Romana knew it was The Doctor. There was another woman following the Doctor, probably a human they had met and had taken in as their newest companion. It was good Rassilon wasn’t here, or any other Time Lords, they may have started to like The Doctor again, but most Time Lords still weren’t accepting of humans on Gallifrey, they didn’t even accept Leela and Ace.

They walked over to a Matrix access chamber, and The Doctor opened it, and once it was activated, even with her still trapped, Romana started to feel like a person again. She was no longer the embodiment of Gallifrey’s past, organizing and protecting the archives, practically the archive herself, unable to have a conversation with any other living being, she was no longer the past, she was free.

“Doctor?” Romana was so glad to finally see someone again, especially an old friend, even if they were in a new body.

“Romana, it’s so good to see you, I thought you were gone!”

“I’d started to think you’d never come for me.”

Unbeknownst to The Doctor, Yaz had followed them out of the TARDIS. “Who is that, Doctor? She looks like a recording or a simulation, or-“

“Yaz, I told you to wait in the TARDIS.”

“It’s alright Doctor, your companion can stay,” Romana didn’t want to keep the Doctor’s friend in the dark, especially if she wanted to know. “After all, you haven’t told her anything about your past, have you?”

“Companion?”

“Romana!” Of course The Doctor didn’t refer to their friends as companions anymore.

“Who are you?”

“Hello, Yaz, is it?”

“Yes. Yasmin Khan, but who are you?”

“I am The Lady Romanadvoratrelundar, but as a friend of The Doctor you can call me Romana.”

“Oh, then you can call me Yaz.”

“I used to travel with The Doctor, like you are now, but I’m not human like you, I am a Time Lord, like The Doctor.”

“If I’m a Time Lord at all.” The Doctor muttered.

“Doctor, you’re more of a Time Lord than any of us ever were.”

“If you’re an actual person, what are you doing on that screen? Why did The Doctor come here just for a video call?”

“Yes, Romana, what are you doing in The Matrix?”

“Yes, Yaz, I used to be an actual person, but after being here for so long I’m not sure I am anymore. I am just an archive of Gallifrey’s past. In the last days of the Time War Rassilon ‘archived’ me.”

“What does that mean? You can’t just archive people.”

“I am trapped in a pocket universe hidden within the cloisters, condemned to curate Gallifrey’s past for eternity. I found a way to access The Matrix, but Rassilon made sure that I have absolutely no way out, and no way to contact your TARDIS.”

“So that’s why you used the matrix to try and talk to me.”

“Exactly. The last message I was able to send out to the universe was a request to help you, because it was prophesied that you were the only Time Lord to make it through the Time War.”

“I got that message, you are not the past, you are not forgotten, I will never forget you, or any one of my companions, and you are here, and I will get you out to see the universe beyond the Time War.”

“When you sealed Gallifrey into its own pocket universe, there was no way to communicate beyond it, I was trapped in a pocket universe within a pocket universe, and when Rassilon brought Gallifrey back into this universe he sealed it in a bubble and made sure I could not transmit beyond it. When they put you in the confession dial I was able to connect to it, I tried to reach you, but you were too focused on the companion you had back then to notice me. When you made it to Gallifrey and threw Rassilon out, I tried to contact you through the cloister wraiths, but you never saw me. Thank you for kicking Rassilon out by the way, he was the only one who spoke to me in here and it was just to call me a disappointment and remind me that he had me trapped. I hoped when he was gone they would let me out but no one else knew I was there. The door out cannot be opened from in here, but it can be opened from the outside. The files of your past were hidden even from me, I don’t know how The Master accessed them, but when he brought you here I tried to talk to you without letting him see me. When you left and the citadel was destroyed I thought there was no hope of rescue. There still may not be, this archive has become part of me, I am Gallifrey’s past.”

“I’m so sorry Romana, I will find a way to get you out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry this isn’t really the best outcome but it’s the first one I thought of. Better ones will be coming soon.


	8. Remembrance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end of the Time war is near, but Leela isn’t ready to give up in Romana, and the Doctor isn’t ready to give up on either of them.

Leela wasn’t too sure what she thought of Gallifrey anymore. Everything that had made it home to her was now lost.

Narvin was gone and all she saw of Romana was the few times Rassilon talked to her via view screen to remind them he had control over them both.

Each time they saw each other a little more color had drained from Romana’s face and she had lost a little more spark from her eyes. Rassilon gave her barely any rest time, and it was as if he was trying to turn Romana into a ghost.

As the final days grew nearer and nearer Leela lost more hope that she would ever have Romana freed.

That hope was regained when she found the familiar sight of a police box in her quarters.

***

From the content of constant flow of new files falling into her pocket universe, Romana could tell the final days of Gallifrey were growing near.

The pocket universe she was trapped in had developed a telepathic link with her mind, telling her exactly where to put each file, and preventing her from fainting from the lack of sleep.

All she had to look forward to were the few times Rassilon would let Leela talk to her, but it had been a long time since the last call.

She opened her newest file and read it, it was the most concerning addition yet, only The Doctor and The Master would survive The Time War.

The chaos of losing the Time Lords would be bad enough, but those two being the only survivors, with no one to keep them in check, was even worse.

If Gallifrey was truly going to be gone, and this was the end even for her, there was still one thing Romana could do:

“I am Romanadvoratrelundar, I speak to you from the final days of Gallifrey...”

***

Leela did what The Doctor had said to get Romana free, and they had made it to a TARDIS, ready to escape. Rassilon was too busy to want to take control of it, and Romana got them away from Gallifrey just in time, before it disappeared.

***

While it was no longer the world she knew, or the world she fought for, Gallifrey was still Romana’s home, and it brought an emptiness to her seeing it no longer there. 

She would continue to do what she had been doing in her pocket universe for so long, remember Gallifrey for what it was, and not what it had become.

***

While it was never truly her home, Gallifrey was the place Leela had lived now for hundreds of years, she had given so much for this world, and the sight of it destroyed saddened her.

After a brief moment of Remembrance, she gave Romana the information the Doctor had given her. Eris had rescued Narvin, and before the resistance was destroyed they had escaped to earth in the year 2010, and had located Ace.

Romana had set their course and they were on their way, but just as they entered the time vortex, Romana collapsed. The lack of sleep must have caught up with her, but Leela hold tell it was more than that.

***

Romana awoke on the floor of the TARDIS, under the console, her head in Leela’s lap. She removed a warm cloth from her eyes and tried to look around.

“Lie still Romana.”

“Leela?”

“Narvin says you need to close your eyes and lie still or this will not work.” It was then that Romana noticed Narvin’s face hovering into view and two wires stuck to her temples coming from the Tardis console.

“What’s going on?”

“You managed to get us to earth but you fainted.”

“When Gallifrey was destroyed the pocket universe you were trapped in transferred as much of the archives as it could into your mind. Rassilon must have implemented this as a way to stop you from leaving.”

“I should have killed him when I had the chance.”

“I already tried that Leela, it wouldn’t work.”

“Fortunately, Eris and I have found a way to transfer that excess information into our TARDISes, but you need to completely relax your mind and body, and keep your eyes closed.”

“Do not worry Romana, I shall look after you.”

“Thank you Leela.”

It wasn’t hard for Romana to relax, it had been a long time since she had felt the comfort of Leela running her fingers through her hair. Leela might be a warrior, but she still had a gentle touch when she needed to. They were finally back together, and the war was over.

***

“Do you know if anyone else got away?”

“One of the last files I received said only The Doctor and The Master would survive the war.”

“Do you think we should tell him?”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea Narvin, if we did he would never leave us alone again.”

“Good point.”

“After all, we have a bed and breakfast to run, and I think you’ll like it here.”

“Really?”

“It is, after all, one of my favorite planets.”

“He affected you too much.”

“I’ll take you to Paris one day, then you’ll change your mind. Everything will be fine, we’re back together, and it’s time for a new start.”


End file.
